Mumbai monorail to be inaugurated today

Mumbai: The much-awaited Mumbai monorail will be inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today. It will open to the public on Sunday, making Mumbai the first city in India to use a monorail.

The monorail will be linked to major local train stations. So the station at Chembur is connected with a skywalk to the monorail station near it.

To start with, the monorail will run every 15 minutes between 7 am and 3 pm.

When the entire monorail project is completed, it will be 20 km long and connect Jacob Circle in south Mumbai to Chembur in eastern Mumbai.

All coaches of the monorail trains are air-conditioned; each train will carry 560 passengers. Tickets are priced between Rs. 5 and Rs. 11 with six stations on the way. There will no monthly passes like the ones on Mumbai's lifeline, the local trains, but there will be a system of smart cards.

Construction of the monorail began in 2009; the project is running almost two years behind schedule. At its fastest, the monorail will run at 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph); the average speed is set at 65 kilometres per hour (40 mph).